Next week Chez Panisse begins another round of its Zinfandel festival, serving many of the older Zins in its cellar and offering a nightly flight of Zin to customers.

You may be scratching your head. Though Alice Waters' temple to localism has always maintained its astute focus on the best of Northern California bounty, its wine list has often looked farther afield, often seeming a reflection more of Panisse's rural French ideals than its Berkeley roots.

But that only tells half the tale. Truth is, Zinfandel has been part of Chez Panisse for more than 30 years and the festival itself has been taking place since about 1982, when Joseph Phelps bottled a Zinfandel nouveau for the restaurant, though it was rarely discussed except between knowing regulars. The Zinfandel connection has endured mostly because of Zin's onetime reputation as the quintessential American grape, even if its roots have been firmly established elsewhere in subsequent years. If Chez Panisse serves as a lighthouse to local, Zinfandel would reasonably be a wine of choice.

"When you work at Chez Panisse, it's very easy to work alongside the choir," wine director Jonathan Waters told me this week as we discussed Zinfandel. "It's good for us to kind of taste them again and return to them."